Search

GREENBELT, Md.–A 31-year-old Capitol Heights, Md. man is to spend just over 12 years in jail and another decade in supervised release for his role in the sex trafficking of two Virginia teenage girls in Prince George’s County, a federal judge in Greenbelt ruled Feb. 1.

In a plea agreement accepted by Chief U.S. District Judge Deborah K. Chasanow, Dennis Smith, a/k/a Domo, admitted to charges of transporting a minor to engage in prostitution and engaging in sex trafficking of a minor.

Federal prosecutors traced Smith’s criminal activities to February 2012 when he brought two girls, one of them 16 years old and the other 15 years old, from Richmond, Va. to Prince Georges County to work as prostitutes.

After being tipped off that Smith was “prostituting the 15-year-old girl at a hotel in New Carrollton, Md. through an online advertisement,” according to a news release by U.S. Attorney for Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein, an undercover police officer set up a date with the girl. When he arrived he found two girls, one 15, the other 17, in the room engaging in prostitution. Smith was arrested and his cell phone, computer and tattoo equipment were seized.

Smith said he brought the 15 and 17 year old girls to his hotel where he photographed them and advertised them online for sexual services, the release said, adding that he “instructed the younger girl on how much to charge clients for sexual services and she provided the money she made from prostitution to Smith.”

At the time of the arrest, police said, both girls had been tattooed with his nickname, Domo.

The U.S. attorney reports that the case is one of 25 undertaken since 2010 by the Maryland Child Exploitation Task Force that has resulted in state and federal prosecutions.